


The Monster Mash

by crumplelush



Series: Andreil Week 2019 [8]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, M/M, Tropes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-14
Updated: 2019-07-14
Packaged: 2020-06-28 10:11:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumplelush/pseuds/crumplelush
Summary: Neil has been assigned to his person for a long time. And now things are changing.





	The Monster Mash

**Author's Note:**

> Day 8: **free choice** /prompt from #AndreilWeek2018
> 
> Inspired by a tumblr prompt. A Monsters AU with "there's only one (under the) bed" trope.

It’s not usual for a person to keep their monster well into adulthood. But then, Neil thinks, Allison Reynolds is anything but usual. Although Neil can hardly talk. He’d gone through child after child before his supervisor had paired him with Allison in desperation. A big part of why Allison still has her monster is that the powers-that-be probably don’t want to have to find another child for Neil.

He peeks out from under the bed to watch his charge as she sits across the room taking off her make up in her usual pre-bedtime routine. She turns off the light and runs to her bed, leaping the last few foot onto it as Neil takes a half-hearted swipe at her legs. They’ve been together for too long for him to put in a lot of effort though, and she makes it unscathed. He shuffles his paws as he waits impatiently for her to fall asleep, and then stretches himself out to move around her room, then climbs out the window and up onto the roof to watch the moon rise.

He hunches down and enjoys the feeling of the wind blowing through his fur. Allison has a date tomorrow. She had been talking to someone on the phone excitably about it. Neil didn’t like it when she had dates. She often didn’t come home, and that didn’t feel right. A monster under the bed is pointless if there’s no person. He sighs, decides he’s not in the mood for howling tonight, and slips back in through the open window and under Allison’s bed. He circles around a few times, stamping down the dust bunnies with this paws until the carpet is how he likes it. Then he settles down and beds down for the night, the blue glow from his eyes slowly dimming as his eyes slip close.

The next night he’s watching his person get ready for her big date. Something seems different. She’s both more excited and yet calmer about this date than any previous ones. He peers out from under the bed and watches her grab outfit and outfit from the closet to try on, seemingly emptying it before settling on the first one she picked. She then starts painting her face. Neil is always enchanted by this. Very few children do it, so he hadn’t known what it was for a long time. Eventually his supervisor had explained how some adult people put paints on their face for fun. Like when Neil made his fur brown when he was a monsterling.

He quickly zips from under the bed to under the closet to watch more clearly. Apparently there are rules to this paint, that Neil can’t understand. The green is only for eyes, the red is only for lips. The purple can be for both, but they come from different containers – even though they seem to be the same colour. Neil doesn’t understand it, but he’s fascinated by it regardless. All too soon it’s time for Allison to leave, and Neil sighs as he heads back to the bed and prepares for a lonely night.

It goes well as Allison stays out for two nights. She returns on the third day with a woman in tow. Her name is Renee, and she is pretty, as far as Neil can tell. He’s not really sure about human standards of attractiveness. But Allison seems to like her. The noises that come from the top of the bed indicate so at least. He spends more and more time on the roof, howling at the moon.

After a few months boxes appear in Allison’s room, and things disappear into the boxes. Neil isn’t sure what’s happening and he doesn’t like it. One morning he wakes up to strange men in the room taking the boxes away. He wonders if Allison is being robbed, but no, she’s there telling them men which boxes to take. Eventually they start taking the furniture, the closet, the drawers, the dressing table. Neil panics when they approach the bed, unsure if he’s supposed to be scaring them off. But Allison seems to want the bed moved. And while Neil’s job is to scare her, it’s also to protect her. And he doesn’t think that stopping the box men will do that.

It’s difficult, but somehow Neil remains hidden when the move the bed. He finds himself in a room filled with the boxes and furniture from Allison’s room and is startled when it starts moving. He’s not sure what’s happening, but he doesn’t like it. Luckily the jiggling and rumbling stops after not to long, and one of the walls move, and Allison is here! Neil is happy to see her. If she’s here then things can’t be that bad.

The surroundings look different though, and the boxes and things are being taken into a house that isn’t Neil’s home. He’s confused, but Allison still seems happy. Neil will wait until night-time and then find his supervisor and ask what’s happening.

The closet gets situated first, so Neil slips under it while he watches the havoc in the rest of the room. Renee is there, and she’s brought her own boxes. It takes all day but finally the room is together and all the boxes have been put away. Neil waits until Renee and Allison are in bed and making those weird noises again before creeping back under the bed.

Where he’s shocked to find another monster hissing at him. This monster has spikes where Neil has fur, and they’re all sticking up in a clear intimidation tactic. He has claws instead of paws, that are outstretched ready to sink into Neil’s face. He doesn’t have eyes, just deep black marks across his face, but Neil knows he can see regardless. He’s also hissing. Everything about him is screaming “fuck off”.

“This is my person. You can’t have her” he snarls, and Neil’s hackles rise.

“Excuse me? Allison is _my_ person. She has been for years. You can’t just waltz in here and claim her!” He doesn’t doubt that this new monster could beat him in a fight, but Neil is not giving Allison up that easily.

“Allison?” the monster questions. “You’re Allison’s monster?”

“That’s what I said!” he exclaims, irate. Although the monster seems to be backing down. His spikes are smoothing down, and he’s lowered his claws at any rate.

“I’m Renee’s monster” he says, and Neil blinks.

What were the chances? Adult humans with monsters were rare. For two of them to find each other and start dating? Neil had never heard of it before.

“Oh” he says.

“Oh” the monster mocks him.

“I’m Neil”, Neil introduces himself. The other monster cocks his head as if examining Neil.

“Andrew” he says, and Neil nods.

“OK Andrew. Do you know what’s happening here? Why has all of Allison’s stuff been moved to this room with Renee’s?”

Andrew scoffs. “How stupid are you? They’ve moved in together.”

Oh. Neil feels foolish. He’s been told about this. But the lesson hadn’t covered what to do if your adult human moves in with another adult human who has a monster. There’s only one under-the-bed.

Neil brings it up to Andrew who flatly refuses to share his under the bed with Neil, and tells Neil to back to under the closet.

“I spent too much time as a monsterling under the closet, I’m certainly not doing it again”, Andrew says nonsensically as Neil prepares to leave.

The noises on top of the bed have died down, and Neil peers out from across the room. It feels wrong to not be under the bed when Allison is asleep. It’s not what monsters are supposed to do. His blue eyes meet Andrew’s black voids, the glow from them illuminating his gaunt face. He sticks a middle claw up at Neil, before shuffling back into a corner out of Neil’s sight. Neil closes his eyes and attempts to ignore the strangeness settling under his fur so he can sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing this made me giggle. I hope you enjoyed it too.
> 
> That's concludes Andreil Week 2019!


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